Making sense of the complex entanglement between emotion and pedagogy: contributions of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">affective turn</Emphasis>

The purpose of this paper is to highlight three recent contributions of the affective turn: moving beyond the emotion/reason dichotomy; highlighting the politics of emotion and affect; and, strengthening the intersections of the psychic and the social. While these contributions are not necessarily paradigmatic of scholarship in the affective turn, they do highlight some important threads of thinking about affect theory in several fields of study, and thus they can be insightful in the context of science education as well. This discussion is motivated by the notion that science teaching and learning can benefit theoretically from these latest developments of affect theory. Although the question of why science teaching and learning has not paid so much attention to emotion and affect in the past is no less important, this paper will move past this in an effort to focus on the openings that are created for pedagogy in general.     

Challenges and Possibilities in a Postmodern Culture of Emotions in Education

There is an increasing interest in the role of emotions in education. The concept of “emotional intelligence” is an example. There are various discourses being developed in education about the importance of emotions. One such emerging discourse builds on the argument that greater emphasis on emotions under some circumstances and control over others is functional and effective for the economy. The goal of this paper is to provide a series of reflections on the “fate” of emotions in education in an era where they appear to be marketed and discussed to an unprecedented degree. In doing so, I wish to intervene in current debates about the role of emotion in education and expose some of the complexities in the “(un)managed heart” and the dilemmas of valorization and/or rejection of emotions that are promoted in education at the dawn of the 21^st century. I argue that a critical inquiry of various challenges in a postmodern culture of emotions constitutes new forms of educational spaces and signifies new understandings of the grounds for problematizing the instrumentalization of emotion in education.     

The Effect of Attitudes on Science Achievement: A Study Conducted Among High School Pupils in Cyprus

The purpose of this study was to examine how pupils' attitudes towards science and their beliefs about themselves affect their achievements in science, and vice versa. Cyprus provided an interesting location for the study, being a developing nation that has adopted educational ideas from a variety of countries, including the US, UK and Greece. The results of this study demonstrated the differential effects that science achievement and science attitudes can have on each other, depending on the characteristics of the educational systems of the country. The findings indicate various directions for future research.     

Identity negotiations in conflict-ridden societies: historical and anthropological perspectives

Abstract

The present paper deals with epistemological and methodological issues as these touch upon the products of educational practices related to the teaching of historical narratives in settings purposely created to facilitate dialogue, inclusion and recognition among children thought to be belonging in clearly differentiated and antagonistic groups in a conflict-ridden area – i.e. Israeli Jews and Palestinians, and Greek and Turkish Cypriots. It offers an overview of the sociopolitical and educational contexts the authors have studied and vignettes of some of the events that captured their attention and led them to critically approach present theorising on peace and multicultural education. It finalises with reflections on the epistemological and methodological issues the authors encountered in their studies.     

Teaching Science to Students with Learning Disabilities: Subverting the Myths of Labeling Through Teachers' Caring and Enthusiasm

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the role of a teacher's caring and enthusiasm in an inclusive science classroom. Using stories, interviews, and action research, it is revealed that this teacher's approach focuses on two major ideas: (a) Combining activity-oriented science curriculum with the building of caring relationships in her classroom; and (b) Developing enthusiasm for science and fulfilling students' personal purposes. A case study of one student labeled as learning disabled is analysed and provides evidence of his remarkable growth in terms of his academic and behavioral performance over a period of two years. Based on the results of this study a number of ways of subverting labeling are suggested and two qualitative hypotheses for further research in this area are proposed. The main suggestion of this study is that thinking behind labels in the context of an inclusive science classroom needs to be revised in light of the role of teacher caring.     

The Sound of Silence in Pedagogy

In this paper, we discuss some conditions for understanding silence as an act of self-criticality and caring for the Other, rather than as an instrumental or technical act identified through discipline or reflection. We first engage into a critical reading of Western and Eastern traditions of silence and use this to explore the pedagogical value of silence. Then we argue how an educational philosophy of silence can be a philosophy of otherness and theorize how teachers and students may reclaim a place for silence in educational settings. We contend that for that to happen teachers and students have to give up their position on the safe side of knowledge and embrace the inexpressible and unknowable.     

Toward a Critical Hermeneutical Approach in Human Rights Education: Transformative Possibilities and the Challenges of Implementation

The present paper examines the implementation of a particular human rights education approach—known as “critical hermeneutical” approach—in the context of two Greek-Cypriot classrooms. The study investigates whether and how an intervention grounded in this approach offers transformative possibilities to students and what kind of challenges it may pose for teachers who implement it. The implications for teacher training and teacher education are discussed.     

Levinas and the "inter-face": The ethical challenge of online education

The capacity of online education to produce learning environments that are supportive of hybrid identities, complex discourses, and multiple relations among learners raises questions about the ethical response of online educators. To investigate the ethics of online education, we discuss two questions: How are identity and communication constituted in online education? What are the features of an ethical pedagogy in online education? Such questions help us think in alternative ways about the ethical dimensions of online education. We argue that Emmanuel Levinas's views on ethics and otherness can overcome some of the ethical challenges inherent in online education by helping educators and learners become more aware of how they respond to the Other and consider their ethical responsibility to the Other's multiple and complex identities. An ethical pedagogy for online education that takes seriously the unknowable and irreducible Other has the potential to provide us with a different notion of what constitutes ethical pedagogies.